TEACHER RESOURCE FOR BROWN GIRL DREAMING BY JAQUELINE WOODSON ANCHOR TEXT Brown Girl Dreaming
This resource with its aligned lessons and texts can be used as a tool to increase (Order Copies from CCS Book Warehouse) student mastery of Ohio’s Learning Standards. It should be used with careful SHORTER LITERARY TEXTS Available HERE consideration of your students’ needs. The sample lessons are designed to target INFORMATIONAL TEXTS Available HERE specific standards. These may or may not be the standards your students need to MEDIA/VISUAL TEXTS Available HERE master or strengthen. This resource should not be considered mandatory.
OHIO’S LEARNING POWER STANDARDS RESOURCE FOCUS W.9-10.3, W.9-10.9, RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.2, Student learning will focus on the analysis of language, character, structure, and themes in Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming as a mentor text that will guide students in their own narrative and informational compositions. Students will analyze and draw RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.4 evidence from several exemplar texts to support their own narratives of real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
SAMPLE LESSON 1 SAMPLE LESSON 2 SAMPLE LESSON 3 SAMPLE LESSON 4 Prior to Reading Part I Part II Part III LEARNING FROM LANGSTON I AM BORN RIBBONS BELIEVING VOCABULARY LIST VOCABULARY LIST VOCABULARY LIST
SAMPLE LESSON 5 SAMPLE LESSON 6 SAMPLE LESSON 7 SAMPLE LESSON 8 Part IV Part V After Reading Extension of Standards to New Material SOMEONE WHO LOOKED LIKE ME HAIKUS THEME CLUSTERS THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH VOCABULARY LIST VOCABULARY LIST VOCABULARY LIST WRITING/SPEAKING PROMPTS (TASK TEMPLATES AND RUBRICS: LDC 2.0, LDC 3.0, ARGUMENT RUBRIC, INFORMATIONAL RUBRIC, NARRATIVE RUBRIC, LDC SPEAKING & LISTENING, SPEECH) Argument Informative/Explanatory Narrative -The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is easy to -After reading Woodson’s editorial entitled “The Pain of the -Although the memoir focuses on Woodson’s experiences, she does discover. However, in other works the full significance of the title becomes apparent to Watermelon Joke,” write and deliver a speech in which you explain describe and imagine the experiences of those around her. Choose one of the reader only gradually. Using Jacqueline Woodson’s memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, write a paragraph in which you make and defend a claim regarding the significance of (using personal anecdote and research) the relationship between the other characters (consider Uncle Robert, Maria, Woodson’s mother, the title. Show how the significance of the title is developed throughout the text. Be humor and stereotypes. grandmother, or some other character) and write a mini memoir from sure to incorporate direct, quoted evidence in your response. -Many works of literature use contrasting places (for example, two that character’s point of view. -Works of literature often depict characters caught between colliding cultures -- countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to -Write a narrative poem about the day of your birth that weaves in national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of personal, family, and national history using Woodson’s poem “february sense of identity into question. Choose a character from Woodson’s memoir who is caught between colliding cultures. Then write a well-organized essay in which you the work. In a well-written essay, explain how Woodson’s use of 12, 1963” as a model. describe the character’s response and make and support a claim regarding the contrasting settings contributes to her speaker’s development. -Choose one of the sections of Brown Girl Dreaming and adapt it to the relevance of this conflict to the work as a whole. -After reading or listening to the NPR interview with Jacqueline screen. Write a short screenplay that dramatizes the characters and -Woodson weaves in events from the Civil Rights movement that figure prominently in Woodson, write an essay in which you explain what Woodson hopes events of the section. young Woodson’s life. Consider how issues of racial conflict and identity impacted Woodson’s development. Write an essay or prepare and deliver a speech in which you to achieve through her writing by using examples from Brown Girl argue whether or not America has advanced since the 60s and 70s with regard to race. Dreaming to illustrate her aim. Make a claim in which you take a position on race in America: have we advanced, remained stagnant, or regressed with regard to the racial divisions that Woodson illustrates in her memoir.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 1 SAMPLE LESSON 1: TWO DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read “Dreams” by Langston Hughes and “Learning from Langston” on page 245 of Brown Girl Dreaming LEARNING FROM LANGSTON: WRITING FROM MODELS OPENING LESSON: Ask students to take a few minutes to write a short reflection in their notebooks in which they explore the topic of role models. Ask students to define a role model and then identify a role model in their own lives. Ask them to describe the person and explain how he or she provides an example of an attribute or ability to which the students aspire. After giving students five to ten minutes for writing and reflection, have them partner up and share their responses. Next, foster a whole-group discussion in which students generate a list of contemporary role models. Record the names on the board or document projector. Foster a discussion on the strengths and weakness of role models in society. How do these images of success support and/or detract from our ability to dream of our futures and take steps toward realizing those dreams? Consider using a T-Chart to organize student responses. Then have students reread Woodson’s poem “Learning from Langston” on page 245 as you read it aloud. Ask students to explore the ways in which Langston Hughes and his poetry function as a role model for Woodson. Have them work in small groups to generate a list of at least three choices that Hughes makes in his poem that influence Woodson’s response. Also ask students to focus on at least two ways that Woodson diverges from Hughes’s model. As groups share out, ask them to consider the importance of models in creativity. How do the examples provided by artists, musicians, and writers help us develop our own creative capacities? You may also wish to extend the discussion to questions of authenticity: if we are following a model are we truly creative? Why or why not? Next, turn students’ attention to the epigraph of the book, which is Langston Hughes’s poem “Dreams.” Briefly explain what an epigraph is and lead the class in an analysis of Hughes’s poem with a special focus on his use of repetition, rhyme, and metaphor. How does each technique contribute to the theme of the poem? STUDENT WORKSHOP: Have students work in groups of three. They will work together to analyze Hughes’s poem and then to generate three new stanzas to extend Hughes’s poem using his techniques but with original content. Finally, they will analyze how their extension both developed and complicated Hughes’s original composition. Tell students that this workshop is designed to help them develop the learning standards of RL. 9-10.1 and RL. 9-10.4 by analyzing Hughes’s use of language and structure to convey theme while honing their ability to cite evidence to support their interpretations. Sharable copies of the questions in Steps in this workshop can be found HERE. Step One: Together they will analyze the original poem answering the following questions: 1. How does Hughes’s repetition of the clause “Hold fast to dreams” support the significance of his theme? 2. What kind of sentence does Hughes employ (interrogative, imperative declarative) and how does this choice contribute to the theme? 3. Hughes creates a poetic argument to justify the importance of his speaker’s repeated claim to “[h]old fast to dreams.” What two reasons does he provide for support? 4. Examine the metaphors in the poem. What does Hughes imply about a life without dreams by comparing it to “a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly”? What meaning does he convey by using a bird as the central image? 5. How might the meaning of the poem change if instead he chose to compare such a life to a dog with a broken leg? What additional connotations does the image of the bird convey that one of a dog would not? 6. Now consider the metaphor in the second stanza. What does Hughes imply about a life in which dreams no longer are present by comparing it to a “barren field / Frozen with snow”? 7. Look up the word “barren.” How does the meaning of this word contribute to the tone of this stanza? 8. How do the added images of “Frozen” and “snow” contribute to the pattern of desolation in the poem? 9. Consider the significance of the image of a field. How might the meaning of the poem change if instead Hughes used the image of a lake rather than a field? What additional connotations does the image of the field convey that one of a lake would not? 10. Notice the rhyme scheme of the poem. Scan it. How does the simplicity of the rhyme scheme contribute to the mood of the poem? 11. Notice how the third line of each stanza is longer and has more beats than the others. Why might Hughes extend these third lines? What ideas are contained in these third lines that are distinct from the content of the rest of the stanzas?
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 2 Step Two: Individually, students will compose an original stanza that develops Hughes’s poem using one of the templates below. Remind students that this process of composition will deepen their mastery of the reading standards listed above while also developing their writing skills with regard to using details, techniques, and sequencing to produce writing appropriate to the task.
1. Hold fast to dreams Example:
2. For if dreams die Hold fast to dreams 3. Life is a ______For if dreams die (third line should be longer (have more syllables) than other Life is a flooded plain lines) That will not dry. 4. ______(must end with a word that rhymes with “die” and consist of two accented
syllables and two unaccented syllables)
1. Hold fast to dreams Hold fast to dreams
2. For if dreams go For if dreams go
3. Life is a ______Life is the hope of seed
(third line should be longer (have more syllables) than other That will not grow. lines)
4. ______(must end with a word that rhymes with “go” and consist of two accented
syllables and two unaccented syllables)
Step Three: Have each student share his/her stanza with the other group members. Have each member analyze the metaphors the other students created. Then have students work together to arrange the stanzas in an order that best develops the themes of the work as a whole. Step Four: Each group should practice and perform their collaborative poem for the rest of the class. After each group performs its poem, the rest of the class should discuss the choices that the group made, paying particular attention to the metaphors and how they developed and complicated the original themes of Hughes’s work. REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Have students separate from their groups. Take a few minutes to summarize the activities. Have students open their notebooks and respond to this prompt: How does Woodson’s choice to include Hughes’s poem as an epigraph to her book forecast themes she may develop. Justify your prediction of at least two themes by linking evidence from Hughes’s poem with ideas generated by the title of Woodson’s memoir: Brown Girl Dreaming. Invite students to consider each word and its implications in the title. -You may collect this or assess the prompt responses during a reading/writing workshop time on another day or during a reading/writing conference.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 3 SAMPLE LESSON 2: TWO TO THREE DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read Part I: pages 1-41 I AM BORN: PART ONE: PERSONAL, FAMILY, AND NATIONAL HISTORY THREADS MINI-LESSON: Woodson’s poem “february 12, 1963” in many ways functions as an introduction to the whole memoir by creating a free verse tapestry within which she weaves the threads of her personal history, her family history, and American history. Read the poem out loud to the students as they follow along. Ask students to share what they learn about the narrative persona that inhabits the poem. Tell students that this lesson will help them cite evidence to support analysis as well as determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details. Then have the students read the poem again while focusing on the following questions: What do we learn about her personally? What do we learn about her family? What do we learn about the time period in which the memoir is located? What aspects of America’s past inform the speaker’s understanding of herself and her place in the world? Have students make a three-column chart in which they track these three threads by listing details from the poem that fit within each category. Then have students share their ideas. For example: Personal History Family History National History
I am born on a Tuesday my great grandparents / worked the deep as the South explodes rich land
STUDENT WORKSHOP: Invite students to look carefully at potential sections in which the threads overlap. For example, Woodson writes, “the people / who look like me / keep fighting / and marching / and getting killed” (2). This section combines the historical moment of her birth within the civil rights movement and her personal racial identity: “people / who look like me.” Ask students to identify and defend at least two such intersections. Challenge them to find a section on which all three threads coalesce. Put up butcher paper (or place laptops with open docs) around the room on which the following threads are labeled (one per paper or device): Personal History, Family History, National History, Personal and Family History Overlap, Family and National History Overlap, Personal and National History Overlap, and Personal, Family, and National History Overlap. Have students move around the room to record their evidence for each of the categories. Once students have completed their records, foster a discussion in which you explore the threads and why Woodson begins her memoir with this poem. How does this poem prepare us for the content she develops throughout part one?
REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Take a few minutes to summarize the activities. Have students open their notebooks to record their response to the following prompt: choose two of the three threads we have focused on for today’s lesson and select one poem from part one that develops these threads. Identify the poem, select and quote evidence directly from the poem that develops each thread, followed by an explanation of how that evidence develops that thread. Use the following example for students to follow in their own responses. You may collect this or assess it during a reading/writing workshop time on another day or during a reading/writing conference.
Example Response
The poem “it’ll be scary sometimes” develops the thematic threads of family and national history. In this poem, Woodson describes the life’s work of her great-great grandfather: “Built his home and farmed his land, / then dug for coal when the farming / wasn’t enough.” In these lines, Woodson explores the characteristics of strength, determination, and resiliency that flow through her family’s history. The thematic thread of the nation’s history also weaves through this poem. Woodson mentions the Civil War and even quotes the inscription on the Civil War Memorial that records her great-great-grandfather’s service: “William J. Woodson / United States Colored Troops, / Union, Company B 5th Regt.” Woodson’s choice to include this detail regarding her great-great-grandfather’s service as a member of the Colored Troops in the Union Army reveals the history of oppression and the nation’s struggle to overcome injustices.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 4 SAMPLE LESSON 2 CONTINUED: TWO TO THREE DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read Part I: pages 1-41
I AM BORN: PART TWO: NARRATIVE POEM AND THEME DEVELOPMENT OPENING ACTIVITY: Return to the poem “february 12, 1963” and ask students to speculate on the process that Woodson may have undertaken to compose this work. What did she have to know or research in order to create this text? What tools and or resources might she have used or consulted in this process? Students may record their answers in their notebooks or share in a discussion. Then ask students to consider their birth date. What do they know about the day of their birth? Where were they born, what hospital, what day of the week? What do they know about the historical moment? What was going on politically, culturally, economically, socially? What do they know about their family’s past? Have them brainstorm answers to these questions in their notebooks. This process will help them recognize the need for additional research. Allow students to use their phones/tablets/secure Chrome books, or schedule time in the computer lab for this next step. Ask students to go online to research the date of their birth. Have them determine the day of the week, the top movies, songs, the headlines, and then expand their research to the whole year. Have students simply type in their year of birth in Google to see a whole list of websites with relevant content. Have them record at least ten facts in a variety of categories (culture, politics, economics, etc.). Model this step yourself. For example, the author of this lesson was born on September 23, 1969, a Tuesday. During 1969, Nixon was newly elected, “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies was on top of the charts, best selling books included The Love Machine and The Godfather, James Earl Ray pled guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and then later recanted, the Stonewall Riots broke out, the Brady Bunch premiered, the Manson Family committed mass murder, the My Lai massacre took place, and men walked on the moon. These facts are among those that provided the content for the example poem below that students will use for their workshop. Now review the example poem (or use your own example). Note that the words in italics are taken from Woodson’s mentor text. HERE is an electronic copy for doc sharing. Read the poem to the class and then have students reread both poems to explore how the example poem follows the moves of Woodson’s poem. Have them work in groups of three to compare and contrast the two poems in terms of themes, language (syntax, diction, imagery, and figurative language) and structure (lineation, stanza breaks, content development). Assign each group a different element to compare and contrast. Then use the jigsaw approach to enable students to become experts on all the criteria for comparison by having students visit other groups and return to home groups. Review findings as a class. september 23, 1969
I am born on a Tuesday at Kettering Medical Center Dayton, Ohio, USA— a country in between
the sixties of promise and the seventies of retreat
in between the My Lai Massacre and the debut of the Brady Bunch in between the fist confirmedcase of HIV/AIDS and the Stonewall Riots in between the moon landing and CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising” in between Mary Joe Kepechne’s drowning at Chappaquiddick and two sleeping Black Panthers murdered in their beds by men in blue.
I am born far from the place where English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 5 my grandfather played banjo and watched the sunrise over Victoria’s Harbour
or where my grandmother sat on her upholstered couch with her hands in her lap looking out of the window at Flatbush Avenue
or where my great-great-grandfather oversaw enterprises of great pitch and moment in Barbados, the land of rum, sugar, and slaves, the engines of power for the few.
I am born as the Midwest fractures, dividing lines, drawn by zip codes and school zones, red lines and promises.
The ruling of ‘54 finally bears fruit that drops: yellow school busses threading through neighborhoods, a specter so frightening, the flight begins.
Promises, promises. Broken in the light. Whispered in the dawn so that today— September 23, 1969 and every day from this moment on, children like me will know they have gifts undeserved but sparkling, without a scent that lets us know what we owe and will keep on owing until we see ourselves with both eyes open.
I am born in Ohio but the stories of the zones, the ships, the grab, the clutch, the generations and the germs already pulse, pulse like drumming in my heart.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 6 STUDENT WORKSHOP: After analyzing the mentor and the example poems, ask students to compose their own free verse poems about the date of their births. Tell them that this lesson will not only reinforce the learning standard regarding theme determination but will also support the narrative writing standard by developing real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. Have them use the content generated by their research in addition to their own knowledge of their history. Allow students to blend historical facts with their imagination. Their poems should weave together historical facts about the day and year of their birth with stories about their family and the country of their birth. Allow students to use real or imagined stories about their ancestry. The aim is to weave together stories of their family, their nation, and themselves in a way that points to their real or imagined futures. They must be thoughtful about their line breaks, their stanza breaks, and the governing structure of the poem. Require them to use at least five lines or phrases from Woodson’s poem as a way to create structure. Have them underline or italicize the borrowed language. After composition time (this may take more than one period), have students meet together in small groups (two to three) to share their compositions and give descriptive feedback. Create a feedback form in which students reflect the content of the poet’s work: what do they learn about the speaker’s identity based on the details included regarding the national, familial, and personal past? Have students who are providing feedback select and share with the poet their favorite line and explain why it is so effective. Invite students to share their composition with the whole class (select volunteers only). You may challenge each small group to nominate a poet within their group to share his or her poem. The nominee may refuse, however. Be sensitive to student vulnerability when sharing original work. As an extension, have the students enter their poems into a contest, such as Ohio Poetry Association’s High School Contest.
REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Have students reflect in their notebooks on the composition process. What aspects of the process were the most challenging? Invention, research, selection of facts, shaping the content, sharing their compositions? Which aspects were the most satisfying? What line of their own poem are they most satisfied with? Why? You may collect this or assess it during a reading/writing workshop time on another day or during a reading/writing conference.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 7 SAMPLE LESSON 3: TWO TO THREE DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read Part II: pages 43 - 138 RIBBONS: IMAGE AS ANCHOR OPENING ACTIVITY: This lesson focuses on how writers use images to anchor their development of meaning. Woodson often uses a central image around which she organizes her recollections and reflections. Especially poignant is her use of the image of ribbons in several of her poems, most notably in the poem entitled “ribbons” on page 121. Before rereading the poem, have students write in their notebooks for a few minutes about an object they recall from their childhood that has significant meaning for them. It may be an article of clothing or jewelry, a gift, a tool, a toy, a food item, or even a smell. Have them describe the image and explore why this image has stayed with them. After five or ten minutes of writing, ask students to share their images either as a whole class or with partners. See if the class can identify trends in the kinds of images and or the reasons for their significance. Next, ask students to turn to page 121 and read the poem “ribbons” out loud to the students as they follow along with the text. Then have them work in small groups of two or three students on the analysis questions below. Emphasize to students that this lesson will help them to master the reading literature standard 9-10.4 in which students will determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone. If you want them to answer the questions on a sharable Google doc, use this file. 1. Woodson grounds this poem on the image of ribbons announced by her title. How does she develop this central image? What other images does she use to expand the reader’s understanding of the significance of the ribbons? Select at least three details from the poem about the ribbons that help develop their significance. Quote directly from the poem and explain what each detail implies. For example, the description of the colors of the ribbons, “blue or pink or white,” helps create a concrete visual image for the reader to picture. The varied colors of the ribbons contribute to their importance as they stress the significance of the dress and appearance of the narrator and her sister. Their grandmother clearly wants these ribbons to help her grandchildren appear deliberately and carefully dressed. 2. Why does Woodson use linking verbs and passive voice in the first stanza? How do these choices contribute to the speaker’s representation of herself as a child in the poem? 3. Locate and cite images and details that contribute to the sense of innocence and youth throughout the poem. 4. Most of the poem consists of specific details regarding the ribbons themselves. However, in four places, Woodson’s speaker diverges from description to reflection. Locate and cite at least two such places. What do these sections reveal about the significance of the ribbons to Woodson? 5. Woodson subtly contrasts images of air and weight in the poem. Locate and cite at least three images that contribute to this pattern of contrast. Why does Woodson develop this pattern? How does the pattern contribute to the speaker’s attitude toward the ribbons? 6. What, ultimately, do the ribbons symbolize? How does Woodson’s complex development of the image of ribbons reveal her complex attitude toward what they represent? Review answers with the class and them pass out three or four other poems in which a central image provides the locus for meaning. Li-Young Li’s “The Gift” uses the image of splinter to ground the speaker’s reflection on his father. Ruth Stone’s “Air” similarly uses a blue shirt as the anchor for her speaker’s reflection. Another complex poem that centers on a central image is Jamaal May’s “There Are Birds Here” in which the speaker shapes the reader’s perception of Detroit and its citizens by carefully developing the image of birds. Each of these texts would make an excellent model for student compositions. They are all available in the SHORTER LITERARY TEXTS FOR PAIRING section. Have students work in their groups to examine the development of the controlling image and how that development reveals the speaker’s attitude toward the image and the meaning of the poem as a whole. Have groups share their findings with the class.
STUDENT WORKSHOP: Now that students have analyzed how poets use images to reveal meaning, have them prepare to compose their own poem that revolves around a central image. Model the process with the students. First Step: Have students make a list of memorable moments in which an object figures prominently. The moment may be from the distant or more recent past, but the object should carry some emotional weight. The object and moment may not have any importance to anyone but the students.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 8 Second Step: Now it’s time tohave the students free write. Tell them to take one of the moments and its central object and begin to write. Allow thoughts to roam wildly and freely. Record everything that comes to mind but try to use as much sensory detail as possible; really focus on the sights, sounds, tastes, touches that will help bring this memory and its associations to life. Don’t worry if you seem to be leaving the original memory or object behind. Give yourself permission to go anywhere. Trust the mystery of the unconscious here. Turn off that critical part of the brain and let flow happen. Third Step: Have students write a first draft of a poem. As they did the free writing, allow them to advance without knowing where they are going. Allow the words to create meaning and direction as they come. Students can do this in their notebooks or on a Google doc for easy sharing. Fourth Step: Have students meet in small writing groups to share their drafts and give and receive feedback on the use of their central image. Use the guide to peer feedback at this wikipage to support students in this process. Fifth Step: Conclude class with a symphony round in which each student shares at least one phrase, line, or section from their draft to the class as a whole. Have students acknowledge each other’s contribution with snaps, oohs, ahs, or some other small signal of community appreciation. Extension Step: Have students use feedback to revise draft for submission to electronic writing portfolio to share, publish, and assess at a later date. As an extension, have the students enter their poems into a contest.
REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Have students read the poem “In My Mother’s House” by Gloria G. Murray and write a response in which they identify the central image and then cite at least three details that develop this image in the poem. Have them determine the speaker’s attitude toward her “mother’s house” and support that determination with evidence from the text. Even though the poem focuses on the image of a house, clearly it is about the speaker’s recollected feelings about her relationship with her mother. Ask students to speculate on why the poet would choose to focus on the house rather than on the subject directly. You may collect this or have students share it electronically for assessing it during a reading/writing workshop time on another day or during a reading/writing conference.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 9 SAMPLE LESSON 4: ONE TO TWO DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read PART III: pages 141 - 203 BELIEVING: NARRATIVE, MEMORY, AND IDENTITY OPENING LESSON: Have students write in their notebooks about a story from their childhood that they remember. This story can be from a book or one that a friend or relative told them. Have them summarize the story, and then speculate on why they remember that particular story. After writing, have students break into small groups and share their stories with each other. After the groups share their stories, have a few students share stories that they heard from others in the class. After they share these overheard stories, ask the originator of the story if the reported version is true or not. How accurate was the retelling of the story? Then discuss the importance of accuracy and truth in story telling. How do we know if a recalled event is true and accurate? What do we mean by truth when it comes to narrative? 1. Then have students reread “believing” on pages 175 and 176. Read the poem out loud as students follow along in their texts. Foster either a whole-group or small-small group discussion of the poem addressing the following questions. Tell students that this lesson will reinforce their ability to determine the theme of a text and analyze its development as well as to analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text. 1. Woodson’s first line “The stories start like this—” is richly ambiguous. What are the possible stories she may be referring to? 2. Woodson’s speaker interrupts her uncle’s song to take control of the “story.” Why does her uncle suggest that the speaker “dreamed” her story of going up a hill? What is the significance of dreaming when it comes to storytelling? 3. Why does Woodson include the detail about her uncle enjoying the stories? Why is this significant? How does it compare with her mother’s reaction to young Woodson’s storytelling? 4. Why does Woodson’s mother equate storytelling with lying? How are these two activities similar? How are they different? Can stories make us criminals? Why or why not? 5. How do stories affect Woodson’s speaker? How each new story I’m told becomes a thing Look carefully at the lines in the box to help that happens, formulate your response: in some other way to me…! 6. What do you think Woodson means in her closing lines: “Maybe the truth is somewhere in between / all that I’m told / and memory”?
STUDENT WORKSHOP: Have students break into small groups to compare “believing” with other poems from Brown Girl Dreaming. All of the following poems from Parts I through III explore the connection between memory, story, and identity: “lullaby” (58), “bible times” (59-60), “the beginning” (62), “hair night” (83-85), “grown folks stories” (98- 99), “the stories cora tells” (114-115), “one morning, late winter” (134), “gifted” (169), “home then home again” (202-203). Have each group become an expert on one of these poems and complete the Comparative Analysis Organizer (located HERE and on the next two pages) together. Lead them first by modeling an analysis of “believing” using the Comparative Analysis Organizer as a guide. At the close of the workshop, have each group present their analysis to the rest of the class. Have them begin with a dramatic reading of the poem, and then proceed to their analysis by leading the class in a discussion of their poem. Have them ask the class to identify the connections to storytelling, memory, and identity in their poem and then share their more polished findings.
REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Take a few minutes to summarize the activities. Then have students read the poem “the stories I tell” on page 290 and 291 or “when I tell my family” on page 229. Have them write a response as an exit ticket to the lesson. How does this poem extend the ideas about storytelling in “believing”? Cite specific details from the poem to support your answer to the prompt.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 10
Comparative Analysis Organizer
Task “believing” title of related poem:
Summarize each poem in Woodson’s speaker recalls a memory of how she used to three to five sentence begin to tell stories while listening to her uncle tell nursery rhymes. Preferring to make up her own stories rather than listen to ones passed down through retellings, Woodson begins to incorporate her imagination and even her dreams into stories, even though her mother claims that such inventions are a form of deceit and will lead to further infractions. Woodson’s speaker concludes by acknowledging that she doesn’t fully understand the difference between “making up stories” and lying, but believes that truth is somehow linked to memory.
Identify the speaker and Woodson’s speaker largely inhabits the voice of the occasion experiencing child who doesn’t understand the ethical or artistic implications of storytelling. However, Woodson’s opening line frames the recollection through the perspective of the experienced writer. The immediate occasion for the poem is the speaker’s uncle’s move to New York City and her growing fascination with his playful, fun-loving lifestyle.
Determine the tone and cite Confused, puzzled: evidence that supports your “It’s hard to understand” determination “maybe the truth” Excited, emboldened: “How each new story…that happens / in some other way/ to me …!” Cite details that relate to the “Jack and Jill” topic of storytelling “my uncle likes the stories” “along came a spider” “Keep making up stories”
Explain how the above details Woodson describes her fascination with making up stories relate to the topic of by recalling familiar stories and showing the reader how storytelling she wanted to enter these stories and shape them herself.
Cite details that relate to the “Maybe the truth is somewhere in between / all that I’m topic of memory told / and memory.”
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 11 Explain how the above details Woodson closes her poem with the discovery that relate to the topic of memory memory may be the dividing line between lies and truth when it comes to storytelling. Perhaps if we focus o trying to honor our memories, then our stories are in service to the truth.
Cite details that relate to the “It’s hard to understand / how my brain works—so
topic of identity (Woodson’s different / from everybody around me.” developing sense of self)
Explain how the above details Woodson’s is just beginning to realize that she is different relate to the topic of identity from others especially when it comes to stories. She realizes that unlike her sister who seems to lose herself in the world of stories, Woodson asserts herself through
stories. Stories, as they enter her, shift, and actually happen to her directly, in “some other way.”
Extended Response:
Explain how both poems explore the topics of identity, memory, and storytelling. How do they develop and
complicate these topics? How is there treatment similar and different? How do they help us understand the process of
Woodson’s development as a writer?
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 12 SAMPLE LESSON 5: TWO TO THREE DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read Part IV: pages 205 - 278 SOMEONE WHO LOOKED LIKE ME: LEARNING FROM MODELS NOTE: While this lesson is situated within the reading of the memoir, it lends itself equally to a culminating activity for the unit. MINI-LESSON: Begin class by reading the poems “reading” on page 226 and “stevie and me” on page 227. While the heart of this lesson will focus on informational texts rather than literary ones, the lesson does reinforce the reading literature standard regarding citation of evidence to support analysis and the determination of theme. Ask the students to answer the following questions below their notebooks. A sharable copy of the questions can be found HERE. 1. Think of a time in your life when you didn’t feel like you were a good reader, where you didn’t measure up to what someone else expected you to be able to do. What were the circumstances of this moment? What were you reading and how did people react or judge your reading? How did this experience make you feel? 2. In the poem “reading,” Woodson resists trying to read as others expect her to because she doesn’t want the stories to “disappear too quickly” because she understands that they are “slowly becoming a part of [her].” What does she mean by this statement? How do stories become a part of you? 3. In the poem “stevie and me,” Woodson recalls the freedom she encountered at the library where she was at liberty to choose anything she wanted to read without judgment. She describes selecting a book “with a brown boy on the cover.” What makes this book so important to Woodson? 4. Why is it important to read books that feature people who look like we do? Why is it important to read books that feature people who don’t look like us? Consider Woodson’s claim that the books she read became part of her. 5. Think of a story (a book, film, or even a song) with which you strongly identify or identified, a story that in some way became part of you. With what did you identify in the story? How did it help you to realize something about yourself? Have students partner up to share their responses and then review as a class. STUDENT SEMINAR: Spend some time describing the purpose and the methodology of Socratic seminars to students. Show videos of student seminars to help students visualize the activity. Spend one day preparing for the seminar by having students read and annotate the two core texts: “Where We Enter” by Veronica Chambers and “The Pain of the Watermelon Joke” by Jacqueline Woodson. In addition to annotating the texts, students should prepare for the discussion by answering the following questions in writing with as much detail and evidence as possible. Students should also come prepared with questions of their own to use to help take ownership of the discussion. Click HERE for a Socratic seminar instruction handout using the questions below. CORE QUESTION: Why do we need diverse books? Jacqueline Woodson is part of a campaign that seeks to encourage the publication and consumption or more diverse books for children. Why is such a movement critical to children’s development? What does this movement’s existence reveal about the current state of children’s literature? How has your development as a reader and writer been impacted by the kinds of literature available to you? What is the danger of only reading books about people who look like you? What is the danger in never reading books about people who look like you? Text-Dependent Questions: 1. Why does Chambers begin her review of Brown Girl Dreaming with her memory of reading Nikki Giovanni’s poetry collection? How does this lead frame her argument? 2. On what grounds does she find fault with the title? Do you agree with her position? Why or why not? 3. Why does Chambers quote A.S. Byatt? How does this quotation advance Chambers’s support of Brown Girl Dreaming? 4. Return to the title of this review, “Where We Enter.” Chambers acknowledges the source for her title, which comes from Anna Julia Cooper who wrote in her 1892 book entitled A Voice from the South that “only the black woman can say when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.” How does this quotation support Lorraine Hansberry’s claim: “To create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific”? 5. Why does Woodson begin her editorial with an anecdote about sitting on the porch spitting watermelon seeds as a child? How does this lead frame her argument? 6. In the fifth paragraph, Woodson broadens her focus to the larger historical context within which she grew up. How does she situate her life experiences within this broader context?
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 13 7. How does the sixth paragraph help to reveal the growing awareness of the intersection between one’s lived experiences and the wider historical forces at work? 8. Why did Woodson believe when she was in elementary school that writing stories about people that looked like her would “change the face of literature and erase stereotypes. Forever”? How does this statement capture the point of view of the young Woodson rather than the Woodson who authors this article? 9. Why does Woodson list her awards? How do these accomplishments heighten the shock of hearing the M.C.’s joke about Woodson’s watermelon allergy? 10. How does Woodson interpret the motivation behind her friend’s joke? 11. Why does Woodson compare the stories of her family to protective weapons? How might the erasure or loss of these stories be equivalent to defeat or death? Why might it be offensive for others to tell out stories, especially “in the form of humor”? 12. What is Woodson’s mission as a writer today? She describes literature as being both a mirror and a window? What do these metaphors mean? Locate examples from Brown Girl Dreaming that demonstrate how the book operates as both a mirror and a window for you. 13. What might Woodson’s response be to Chamber’s complaint regarding the title Brown Girl Dreaming?
SEMINAR PARTICIPATION: Invite a student to begin the seminar by either asking one of his or her own questions, or by responding to one of the questions that connects directly to students’ experiences. Beginning and ending seminars with student experience helps students to understand the relevance and importance of the lesson. Students may wish to begin with their notebook reflections from the previous day to warm up to the core question and the investigation of the core texts. REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: At the conclusion of the seminar, ask students to complete a self-evaluation(located at the end of the instruction document) in which they reflect on how well they prepared for and participated in seminar. Ask them to make a goal for improvement in the next seminar. Also ask them to identify and celebrate someone in the class who made a significant contribution to the discussion or who took a successful risk in the discussion. Share these celebrations with the class if time allows or revisit when the class next meets and you discuss the seminar as a whole.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 14 SAMPLE LESSON 6: TWO DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read Part V and “author’s note”: pages 281-325 HAIKUS: PART ONE MINI-LESSON: Begin class by reading out loud “p.s. 106 haiku” on page 244 as students follow along in their texts. Ask students to share what they know about the haiku form. Have them write down in their notebooks the guidelines for the haiku and then explore why children are so often invited to write poems in this form. Have students work in small groups, two to three students, in which they analyze how “p.s. 106 haiku” satisfies the form requirements for the haiku while at the same time captures the fourth-grade voice of Woodson. Focus on the structure (the five-seven-five syllable count, a pause or shift after the first or second line, use of the present tense) and the content (directness, simplicity, and seasonal association). Tell students that this lesson will support their ability to determine how details and structure reveal theme ( RL.9-10.2).
STUDENT WORKSHOP: Have students compose their own group haiku about the present moment in their school. They may title the poem after Woodson’s. For example:
centennial high school haiku Author’s note: We see fluorescent Centennial is a school with no windows, a fact that is startling and with which is difficult for students, especially shades of gray and wonder suns. freshmen, to grow accustomed. Furthermore, research Who thinks this is good? abounds that supports the importance of natural light in students’ cognitive development. After the group workshop, have each group share their school haiku. You may wish to host a haiku battle or slam for sharing the group haikus. Two groups compete at a time, each one reading its haiku while three students selected at random use flags (or signs) to signal their vote after both groups perform. The group with the most votes wins the round. The next round proceeds the same way, with different students selected to judge. As an extension, have the class enter the haikus in Haiku Society of America Annual Contest.
REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Have students write in their notebooks about the haiku form in poetry. What advantages does this form have? What are its disadvantages? Why do they think Woodson was so attracted to the form not just as a developing writer but also as a professional one?
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 15 SAMPLE LESSON 6: PART TWO Prior to Lesson: Students should read Part V and “author’s note”: pages 281-325 HAIKUS PART TWO: HAIKUS AS UNIFYING STRUCTURE MINI-LESSON: Begin class by reading out loud “first book” on page 252 as students follow along in their texts. Have them take a few minutes to write a reflection in their notebooks about the poem. Why doesn’t Woodson’s speaker feel that she has a “real book” by merely writing seven poems? Why does the spacing and arranging of the poems on separate pages make the book become real to the speaker? What makes the book complete for Woodson? Why might formatting and entitling a work make it become real? What do you think Woodson means by “real” and “complete” in this poem? How do we know when something we have created is “complete”? Spend a few minutes sharing and exploring student responses. As the discussion progresses, ask students to examine the structure of Brown Girl Dreaming. How does it reflect the process Woodson describes in “first book”? In other words, how is Brown Girl Dreaming similar to the book Butterflies that Woodson describes in the poem? Have students work in partners or groups of three to review the text as a whole for examples of similarities and then report out. Groups will inevitably discus Woodson’s use of haikus throughout Brown Girl Dreaming. Direct students’ attention to the series of haikus entitled “how to listen.” Begin with “how to listen #1” on page 20. Ask students to consider why this haiku series provides a kind of spine in the text. Why focus on the skill of listening? Why is listening so important in our development? Lead students in an analysis of “how to listen #1” using the Haiku Analysis Organizer below or in an electronic sharable form HERE. Complete the organizer with the students. HAIKU ANALYSIS ORGANIZER
Haiku Title and page number: Rewrite haiku here: Paraphrase the haiku. Your paraphrase should be longer than the original haiku. how to listen #1 (20) Somewhere in my brain each laugh, tear and lullaby Everything I hear, including laughter, songs, and weeping, enters becomes memory. my mind and transforms into a permanent recollection. Task Explanation Evidence
Review the poems that precede and This haiku is situated within poems about Woodson’s birth The preceding poems detail not just Woodson’s birth as in “I am born on a follow your haiku to determine its and earliest memories in Ohio where she was born and Tuesday” in Woodson’s first poem (1) but also the story of her naming when context within Woodson’s narrative. began to learn of her immediate and extended family. her “mother said to [her] aunts, /Hand me that pen, wrote / Jacqueline where it asked for a name” (7). The poem following this haiku details the death of What is going on in her life that is Woodson’s uncle Odell who was “hit by a car” (21). reflected in the haiku?
Why is it fitting that Woodson place this The haiku makes sense in this location because it Woodson’s list of “laugh, tear and lullaby” convey the range of experiences she haiku in this part of the text? condenses the variety of sensations that young Woodson is is hearing at this point in her life. experiencing in these early years of her life. She has not yet developed her own voice but is registering the voices and experiences of those around her and those experiences, bot joyful and tragic, are becoming part of her through memory.
What theme or themes does this haiku This haiku explores the relationship between memory and The final line of the haiku is about how these sensations “become memory.” convey? identity. The title of the poem and Woodson’s description of “somewhere in my brain” also suggest the link between what we hear and who we become.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 16 STUDENT WORKSHOP: After reviewing the first haiku together as a class, separate the students into small groups of three and have them choose one of the nine other haikus in the series to analyze using a blank Haiku Analysis Organizer found HERE. Themes they may wish to consider in their analysis can revolve around the topics of family, place, story, dreams, identity, language, faith, race, memory, or themes of their own choosing. At the conclusion of the workshop, have each group share their work by projecting their organizer to the class. Have students record notes in a summary organizer so they may better understand how Woodson’s haiku series creates an internal structure that unifies the memoir. This step will also reinforce learning standards regarding theme and character development. HERE is an electronic version of the Haiku Summary Organizer for sharing.
HAIKU SUMMARY ORGANIZER
Title Haiku Context Theme(s)
how to listen #1 Somewhere in my brain Birth and first memories of family Memory, identity each laugh, tear and lullaby in Ohio becomes memory. how to listen #2
how to listen #3
how to listen #4
how to listen #5
how to listen #6
how to listen #7
how to listen #8
how to listen #9
how to listen #10
REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Have students compose four to five haikus about their own lives in various phases: for example, pre-school years, elementary school years, middle-school years, and the present. Have them use Woodson’s title (or a variation) to help direct their focus and limit their themes. For example, they may wish to write haikus on how to speak, how to cry, how to dream, how to stand, or even how not to do something. There are a few examples from the author of this lesson on the next page. Have students engage in peer feedback and revise their Haiku Series for inclusion in their electronic writing portfolio. Click HERE for a blank, sharable document for their Haikus. As an extension, have the class enter the haikus in Haiku Society of America Annual Contest.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 17
HAIKU SERIES AUTHOR NOTES
how to see #1 Pre-school: earliest memory of Lying in a crib, noticing the star decals pasted to watching stars come into view. the ceiling of my room. Glow-in-the-dark love. how to see #2 Second grade: after the Busing across town desegregation of Dayton Public to sit in Ms. Rush’s class, Schools. Mandatory busing instated. new worlds break wide openly. how to see #3 Eighth grade: New district zoning Battles over place resulting in new populations being and race spill into classrooms. desegregated. Class and race No one here can see. tensions explode.
how to see #4 Twelfth grade: planning on leaving Staying up all night Dayton to travel beyond the to watch the dawn blink open. Midwest. I will leave this place. how to see #5 Present: reflecting on the gulf that Hope sweeps over me continues to prevent us from seeing while sirens flash like blinders one another as fully human. groping in the dark.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 18 SAMPLE LESSON 7: TWO DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should read full text. THEME CLUSTERS MINI-LESSON: This lesson focuses on how writers develop themes by selecting and arranging details and techniques that refine and complicate central ideas over the course of a work as a whole. Tell students that this lesson will help them master the abilities outlined in standards RL. 9-10.3 and RL. 9-10. 1 by identifying how themes emerge and develop over time and selecting and citing evidence in support of such determinations. It may be important to help students understand that theme can be broken down into theme topic and thematic statement. This exercise will take a theme topic and delve into the statement(s) Woodson is making about it. Have students reread the following poems: “the woodsons of ohio” (8-9), “gunnar’s children” (50-51), “herzl street” (145), “poem on paper” (273-274), and “each world” (319- 320). Each of these poems comes from a different part of the memoir but all contribute to the thematic concept of family in Woodson’s life. Lead students in a careful investigation of this theme and trace its development through the five poems, paying careful attention to the choices Woodson’s makes to clarify the significance of her family to her growing sense of herself. Use the Theme Tracing Organizer as you lead students in this investigation. THEME TRACING ORGANIZER
Poem Title Summarize the poem and include details and or Explanation of thematic connection (have students bold or techniques that relate to theme (describe and quote underline explicit thematic connections in their explanations) direct evidence from the poem)
“the woodsons of ohio: Woodson describes the Woodson family line as possibly This catalog of successful occupations and achievements tracing back to Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings which reflects the Woodsons’ pride in their family and history. The may account for their success over the generations in that speaker begins this poem with the line “My father’s family” and “you can’t go down the Woodson line / without / finding / ends the poem with the line “and they’ll begin to tell our long, doctors and lawyers and teachers / and athletes and long story.” This frame reveals young Woodson’s initiation into scholars and people in government / they’ll say.” this “long story” and her claiming ownership of her place within it reflected by the possessive pronoun shift. She moves from describing her father’s family to seeing that family as her own.
“gunnar’s children” While part one focuses on Woodson’s life in Ohio, part two This poem develops the theme of family in that Woodson has focuses on her life with her grandparents in South Carolina. left Ohio and her father and in South Carolina has found a new This poem describes Woodson’s recollection of her father in her relationship with Daddy Gunnar. This relationship grandfather coming home from work, singing and greeting will become central to Woodson’s development throughout the his neighbors along the way. The speaker calls her memoir as Daddy Gunnar’s love and support of Woodson’s grandfather “Daddy” just as her mother does, and feels growth as a young woman and a writer will be instrumental. deeply connected to him as she is one of “Gunnar’s Woodson foreshadows this impact by repeating Gunnar’s children.” Details such as the image of the children command that “Y’all are Gunnar’s children / Just keep “climbing him like a tree,” the description of “his hand” remembering that. / Just keep remembering….” In these lines “warm and strong around” the speaker’s own hand, and Woodson connects the theme of family with the theme of the final image of all the children “circling him” and “loving memory suggesting that how we remember our family shapes him up” all contribute to his status as not just a father how we conceive of ourselves. figure, but the center of love and acceptance for the whole community.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 19 “herzl street” Part three chronicles the move from the South to New York Unlike the first two poems in this grouping, here Woodson where Woodson’s mother has taken the family to live in expands the concept of family to go beyond blood relatives to Brooklyn in the hopes of realizing more opportunity. Here include those who have shared experiences and culture. too, the Woodsons connect with family as “Aunt Kay and Woodson’s inclusion of details regarding food, language, Bernie lived upstairs” and people from Greenville and landscapes, dance and music suggests that family is culturally other parts of the South congregate in the evenings to eat formed as well as biologically formed. together and tell stories. Woodson equates the stories they told of “red dirt and pine trees” as well as “the fancy dancing and soul music” as all becoming part of who they were; in short, “They were family.”
“poem on paper” Part four develops Woodson’s recognition of herself as a The irony of this poem is rich in that the young Woodson writer. She begins to claim this identity and write of her perhaps did not fully realize how influential her family would experiences. In this poem Woodson describes her family’s be on her life as a writer, but the poet Woodson here reaction to her writing. She recalls her mother’s warning beautifully acknowledges the role her family has played in all about her becoming a writer. She allows Woodson to write, she has written; whether or not it seems to be about her “Just so long as you’re not writing about our family.” family, it is. Although the speaker in the poem claims that she is not writing about her family, “Well, not really…” we understand that of course she is.
“each world” This closing poem effectively unifies many themes of the This coda to the memoir beautifully integrates the relationship work, but, perhaps most poignantly, Woodson explores the between Woodson’s family, her history, and her development possibilities created by family in our lives. Woodson as a writer. Not only is this memoir a Bildungsroman but also a describes the possibilities of entering worlds by imagining Kunstlerroman, for throughout the work she dramatizes her the many people we have been including “sister,” “baby,” growing sense of self and voice. In this final poem she invites “daughter” while also entering other worlds by imagining the reader to recognize that each of us is an inheritor of worlds, ourselves as others: “You can imagine yourself as a mother and stories, those from our families and homes, and that we now.” Woodson expands these worlds to include place, have the power to shape and “decide” what our future—“each “Ohio and Greenville,” and family, “Woodson and Irby.” All world / and each story / and each ending / will finally be.” her identities are gathered together “into one world / called You.”
STUDENT WORKSHOP: Separate the class into small groups within which they will work together to analyze how Woodson develops a theme over the course of the memoir. In the table that follows is a list of nine theme topics, each of which may be further divided. Note that some poems appear in more than one category as the topics/themes overlap. Give students a blank Theme Tracing Organizer to use to support their analysis. At the close of the workshop, have each group share its findings while the class takes notes. The following is a list of nearly every poem in the memoir delineated by theme topic around which thematic statements emerge. You may wish to choose from these existing lists, or have students determine the themes and select their own poems that form a theme topic constellation.You may also wish to simply use the title Brown Girl Dreaming as a crystalized list of themes. The list is available in a Google Doc HERE.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 20 Family Identity Race Place Memory Dreams Writing Language Faith (story, voice) “the woodsons of “a girl named “journey” (29) “rivers” (38) “other people’s “football dreams” “lullaby” (58) “the right way “faith” (112) ohio” (8) jack” (6) “greenville, “ohio behind us” (46) memory” (17) (15) “bible times” (59) to speak” (68) “the stories “the ghosts of the “our names” (45) south “at the end of the “how to listen #1” “the garden” (49) “the reader” (61) “gifted” (169) cora tells” (114) Nelsonville house” “at the end of Carolina, day” (53) (20) “south carolina at “the beginning” (62) “writing#2” “hale street” (10) the day” (53) 1963” (30) “hope” (64) “each winter” (27) war” (72) “hair night” (83) (221) (116) “uncle odell” (21) “the beginning” “after “as a child” (95) “the cousins” (33) “american dream” “grown folks’ stories” (93) “the selfish “how i learn the “my mother and (62) Greenville” “I smelled the air” “as a child i (88) “the stories cora tells” (114) giant” (246) days of the grace” (25) “hope” (64) (36) (95) smelled the air” “the leavers” (93) “sometimes no words are “curses” (257) week” (119) “home” (32) “family names” “south “halfway home #1” (95) “my mother looks needed” (131) “graffiti” (260) “two gods. two “the cousins” (33) (86) Carolina at (104) “my mother back on greenville” “one morning, late winter” (134) “music” (262) worlds” (122) “night bus” (35) “changes” (108) war” (72) “changes” (108) leaving greenville” (105) “composition notebook” (154) “the earth from “what god “leaving columbus” “ribbons” (121) “the training” “leaving greenville” (103) “the last fireflies” “on paper” (156) far away” (315) knows” (124) (40) “new york baby” (75) (136) “caroline, but we (107) “gifted” (169) “the other “gunnar’s children” (135) “miss bell and “new york city” (143) called her aunt “sterling high “believing” (175) infinity” (129) (50) “genetics” (148) the marchers” “brooklyn, ny” (144) kay, some school” (110) “off-key” (177) “another “sometimes, no words “on paper” (156) (80) “herzl street” (145) memories” (149) “the johnny pump” “home then home again” (202) kingdom hall” are needed” (131) “mrs. hughes “how to listen “moving again” (151) “moving again” (147) “family” (207) (160) “the letter” (132) house” (193) #2” (82) “first grade” (158) (151) “wishes” (174) “writing#1” (217) “flag” (162) “herzl street” (145) “tomboy” (211) “the fabric “brooklyn rain” (144) “saturday “chemistry” (186) “writing#2” (221) “because we’re “sometimes” (170) “late autumn” store” (90) “hallway home #2” morning” (157) “maria” (209) “birch tree poem” (223) witnesses” “uncle Robert” (171) (218) “ghosts” (92) (183) “believing” (175) “how to listen #5” “reading” (226) (164) “our father” (181) “the other “sterling high “going home again” “our father, fading (210) “stevie and me” (227) “believing” “baby in the house” woodson” (219) school” (110) (189) away” (181) “when I tell my “when I tell my family” (229) (175) (188) “new girl” (254) “new “home again to hall “writing#2” (221) family” (229) “hope onstage” (232) “eve and the “Sunday afternoon” “afros” (259) playmates” street” (191) “how to listen #8” “bushwick history “learning from lansgton” (245) snake” (179) (199) “graffiti” (260) (125) “mrs. hughes house” (292) lesson” (297) “the selfish giant” (246) “field service” “family” (207) “dannemora” “what (193) “every wish, one “power to the “the butterfly poems” (249) (197) “one place” (208) (270) everybody “what everybody dream” (313) people” (302) “six minutes” (250) “rikers island” “daddy gunnar” (230) “not robert” knows now” knows now” (237) “say it loud” (304) “first book” (252) (264) “daddy this time” (272) (237) “fresh air” (242) “maybe mecca” “graffiti” (260) “fate & faith & (234) “afterg reenville “fresh air” “mimosa tree” (285) (306) “rikers island” (264) reasons” (293) “far rockaway” (240) #2” (283) (242) “bushwick history “every wish, one “on the bus” (267) “maybe mecca” “pasteles & pernil” “what’s left “fate & faith & lesson” (297) dream” (313) “too good” (269) (306) (255) behind” (288) reasons” (293) “what I believe” “mountain song” (273) “what I believe” “rikers family” (264) “the stories i tell” “power to the (317) “poem on paper” (275) (317) “daddy” (276) (290) people” (302) “how to listen #7” (278) “after greenville#2” “bushwick “say it loud” “the stories I tell” (290) (283) history lesson” (304) “the revolution” (308) “what’s left behind” (297) “how to listen #10” (310) (288) the promise “a writer” (311) “what I believe” (317) land” (300) “the earth from far away” (315) “the revolution” “each world” (319) (308) “a writer” (311) “every wish” (313) “each world” (319)
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 21 REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: As an exit ticket to check for understanding, ask students to select one theme topic (it may or may not be one they focused on in their workshop) that they believe is the most important in the memoir. Have them justify their selection by establishing their criteria and then citing evidence from at least three poems for support.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 22 SAMPLE LESSON 8: ONE TO TWO DAYS Prior to Lesson: Students should reread “after greenville #2” on page 283 THERE WAS A CHILD WENT FORTH: MINI-LESSON: The aim of this lesson is for students to apply the skills developed throughout the earlier lessons by analyzing new material. Many of the lessons have focused on RL.9-10.2, how writers use details, techniques, and sequencing to develop themes. This lesson will expand students’ ability by having them apply these skills to a poem by Walt Whitman and an excerpt from Richard Wright’s Black Boy. Review the literary term of free verse with students once again. Stress that although free verse poems do not follow strict metrical patterns, they nonetheless are shaped and organized by the use of techniques including line breaks, stanza groupings, and repetition. Read “after greenville #2” out loud to students as they follow along with their texts. Ask them to notice how Woodson creates structure through her use of repetition, lists, and line breaks that vary the rhythm of the poem. Break the class into small groups assigning each group a different stanza of the poem to examine. Have each group complete a stanza analysis chart to quickly examine how Woodson marries technique to meaning. They can do this in their notebooks in a four-column chart. The sections of the analysis chart are Stanza Number, Summary, Techniques and Examples, and Effects. For example, an analysis of the fourth section may look like the following:
Stanza Number: Summary: Techniques and Examples: Effects: four In this section Woodson Repetition: “After Daddy dies” Woodson repeats this line at the beginning of each stanza to describes learning how to emphasize how significantly her life changed after the death “jump double Dutch” of her grandfather. In this section, however, we see the through the winter speaker returning to normal life and beginning to move on. months following the death of her grandfather. Lists: “Ten, twenty, thirty, forty” The first list effectively dramatizes the speaker’s attempt to “fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety…” master jumping rope. The list creates a rhythm that matches the rhythm of jumping rope.
Line break: “one afternoon” This line is far shorter than the others in this section in effect creating a hinge. Woodson’s choice to isolate these two words within their own line creates a turning point in the stanza which reflects the speaker’s turning point in not just learning the skill of jumping rope, but the point in which she begins to be “release[d]” from the grief of her grandfather’s death.
Have students share their analyses with the rest of the class. Foster a discussion in which you explore how Woodson’s free-verse structure is instrumental in conveying the theme of the poem. Focus particularly on not only Woodson’s use of structure and repetition, but have students notice how she includes references to the time of year, and time’s passage, to support the meaning of the poem: although life seems to stand still in the wake of the death of a loved one, time does ease, but not erase, the pain of such loss.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 23 STUDENT WORKSHOP: Now pass out Whitman’s poem “There Was a Child Went Forth” located (and linked) on the next page. Review the vocabulary of the poem with students before reading it. Read the poem out loud to students as they follow along. Lead them through several readings each focusing on a different goal: reading one: what images stand out? Reading two: what patterns emerge in the poem? Reading Three: what thematic concepts are emerging? For the fourth reading, break the class into separate groups, each focusing on a different stanza and have them complete another stanza analysis chart in which they summarize their section, and identify, cite, and explain the effects of at least three techniques in the stanza that contribute to the development of Whitman’s theme. After students share their analysis, foster a discussion in which you compare this poem to Woodson’s “after greenville #2.” How are the poems similar in technique? How do they differ in technique? In what ways are the themes related? In what ways do the themes diverge? How do you know?
REFLECTION/FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: As an exit ticket or formative assessment, have students read the excerpt from Richard Wright’s Black Boy located (and linked) on page 27 and discuss how the excerpt is similar in theme to Whitman’s poem. Ask them to identity, cite, and explain at least two techniques that poems have in common that support the development of the theme. You can use this as a determination concerning mastery of RL.9-10.1 and RL.9-10.2.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 24 SHORTER LITERARY TEXTS FOR PAIRING
“Dreams” by Langston Hughes “There Was a Child Went Forth” by Walt Whitman Hold fast to dreams There was a child went forth every day; For if dreams die And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became; Life is a broken-winged bird And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for That cannot fly. many years, or stretching cycles of years.
Hold fast to dreams The early lilacs became part of this child, And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the For when dreams go song of the phoebe-bird, Life is a barren field And the Third-month lambs, and the sow’s pink-faint litter, and the mare’s foal, Frozen with snow. and the cow’s calf,
And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side, Li-Young Lee’s “The Gift” And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there—and the beautiful To pull the metal splinter from my palm curious liquid, my father recited a story in a low voice. And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads—all became part of him. I watched his lovely face and not the blade. Before the story ended, he’d removed The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part of him; the iron sliver I thought I’d die from. Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden, I can’t remember the tale, And the apple-trees cover’d with blossoms, and the fruit afterward, and wood- berries, and the commonest weeds by the road; but hear his voice still, a well And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-house of the tavern, whence of dark water, a prayer. he had lately risen, And I recall his hands, And the school-mistress that pass’d on her way to the school, two measures of tenderness And the friendly boys that pass’d—and the quarrelsome boys, he laid against my face, And the tidy and fresh-cheek’d girls—and the barefoot negro boy and girl, the flames of discipline And all the changes of city and country, wherever he went. he raised above my head.
His own parents, Had you entered that afternoon He that had father’d him, and she that had conceiv’d him in her womb, and you would have thought you saw a man birth’d him, planting something in a boy’s palm, They gave this child more of themselves than that; a silver tear, a tiny flame. They gave him afterward every day—they became part of him. English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 25 Had you followed that boy you would have arrived here, The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table; where I bend over my wife’s right hand. The mother with mild words—clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger’d, unjust; Look how I shave her thumbnail down The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure, so carefully she feels no pain. The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture—the yearning and Watch as I lift the splinter out. swelling heart, I was seven when my father Affection that will not be gainsay’d—the sense of what is real—the thought if, took my hand like this, after all, it should prove unreal, and I did not hold that shard The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time—the curious whether and between my fingers and think, how, Metal that will bury me, Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks? christen it Little Assassin, Men and women crowding fast in the streets—if they are not flashes and specks, what are they? Ore Going Deep for My Heart. The streets themselves, and the façades of houses, and goods in the windows, And I did not lift up my wound and cry, Vehicles, teams, the heavy-plank’d wharves—the huge crossing at the ferries, Death visited here! The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset—the river between, I did what a child does Shadows, aureola and mist, the light falling on roofs and gables of white or brown, when he’s given something to keep. three miles off, I kissed my father. The schooner near by, sleepily dropping down the tide—the little boat slack-tow’d astern, Ruth Stone’s “Air” The hurrying tumbling waves, quick-broken crests, slapping, Through the open window, a confusion The strata of color’d clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint, away solitary by itself— of gasoline fumes, lilacs, the green esters of grass. the spread of purity it lies motionless in, Edward Waite rides the lawn mower. The horizon’s edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt marsh and shore Each summer his voice is more stifled. His emphysema is worse. mud; "Three packs a day," he says, still proud of the fact. Before he got sick, he drove semis across the country. These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, Every two weeks he drives his small truck up the mountain. and will always go forth every day. He mows in long rows fitting swath to cut swath, overlapping the width. To please me he saves the wild paintbrush along the edge. Stripped to the waist, I see he has hung his blue shirt on my clothesline to dry out the sweat. The shirt, with its arms upraised, filled with the body of air, is deeply inhaling, exhaling its doppelgänger breath.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 26 Jamaal May’s “There Are Birds Here” Selections from Richard Wright’s Black Boy For Detroit Sample Selection fromchapter one: There are birds here, Each event spoke with a cryptic tongue. And the moments of living slowly so many birds here revealed their coded meanings. There was the wonder I felt when I first saw a brace of mountainlike, spotted, black-and-white horses clopping down a dusty is what I was trying to say road through clouds of powdered clay. when they said those birds were metaphors for what is trapped There was the delight I caught in seeing long straight rows of red and green vegetables stretching away in the sun to the bright horizon. between buildings and buildings. No. There was the faint, cool kiss of sensuality when dew came on to my cheeks and The birds are here shins as I ran down the wet green garden paths in the early morning. to root around for bread There was the vague sense of the infinite as I looked down upon the yellow, the girl’s hands tear dreaming waters of the Mississippi River from the verdant bluffs of Natchez. and toss like confetti. No, There were the echoes of nostalgia I heard in the crying strings of wild geese I don’t mean the bread is torn like cotton, winging south against a bleak, autumn sky. I said confetti, and no There was the tantalizing melancholy in the tingling scent of burning hickory not the confetti wood. a tank can make of a building. I mean the confetti There was the teasing and impossible desire to imitate the petty pride of sparrows wallowing and flouncing in the red dust of country roads. a boy can’t stop smiling about and no his smile isn’t much There was the yearning for identification loosed in me by the sight of a solitary ant like a skeleton at all. And no carrying a burden upon a mysterious journey. his neighborhood is not like a war zone. There was the disdain that filled me as I tortured a delicate, blue-pink crawfish I am trying to say that huddled fearfully in the mudsill of a rusty tin can. his neighborhood There was the aching glory in masses of clouds burning gold and purple from an is as tattered and feathered invisible sun. as anything else, as shadow pierced by sun There was the liquid alarm I saw in the blood-red glare of the sun’s afterglow mirrored in the squared panes of whitewashed frame houses. and light parted by shadow-dance as anything else, There was the languor I felt when I heard green leaves rustling with a rainlike but they won’t stop saying sound. how lovely the ruins, There was the incomprehensible secret embodied in a whitish toadstool hiding in how ruined the lovely the dark shade of a rotting log. children must be in that birdless city. English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 27 Gloria G. Murray’s “In My Mother’s House” There was the experience of feeling death without dying that came from watching a chicken leap about blindly after its neck had been snapped by a quick twist of every wall my father’s wrist. stood at attention even the air knew There was the great joke that I felt God had played on cats and dogs by making them lap their milk and water with their tongues. when to hold its breath the polished floors There was the thirst I had when I watched clear, sweet juice trickle from sugar looked up cane being crushed.
defying heel marks There was the hot panic that welled up in my throat and swept through my blood the plastic slipcovers when I first saw the lazy, limp coils of a blue-skinned snake sleeping in the sun. crinkled in discomfort There was the speechless astonishment of seeing a hog stabbed through the heart, dipped into boiling water, scraped, split open, gutted, and strung up gaping in my mother’s house and bloody. the window shades There was the love I had for the mute regality of tall, moss-clad oaks. flapped against the glare There was the hint of cosmic cruelty that I felt when I saw the curved timbers of a of the world wooden shack that had been warped in the summer sun. the laughter There was the saliva that formed in my mouth whenever I smelt clay dust potted crawled like roaches with fresh rain. back into the cracks There was the cloudy notion of hunger when I breathed the odor of new-cut, bleeding grass. even the humans sat— cardboard cut-outs And there was the quiet terror that suffused my senses when vast hazes of gold washed earthward from star-heavy skies on silent nights… around the formica kitchen table and with silver knives sliced and swallowed their words
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 28 INFORMATIONAL TEXTS FOR PAIRING
“The Pain of the Watermelon Joke” by Jacqueline Woodson “Where We Enter” by Veronica Chambers “The Power of Others’ Words” by Carissa Turner Smith “Author Jacqueline Woodson on Memories, Verse and the National Book Award” by Anna Russell
MEDIA/VISUAL TEXTS FOR PAIRING
The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell The Big Blue Marble opening montage Audio Excerpt from Shirley Chisholm’s 1969 Howard University address Code Switch Interview with Jacqueline Woodson
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 29 OHIO’S LEARNING STANDARDS-CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS: ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS-WRITING, GRADES 9-10 Essential Components WRITE NARRATIVES TO DEVELOP W.9-10.3.a-e Academic REAL OR IMAGINED EXPERIENCES a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a Vocabulary/Language -analyze problem, situation, or observation, establishing one W.9-10.3 OR EVENTS USING EFFECTIVE -characters/characterization or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a -clauses -coherent TECHNIQUE, WELL-CHOSEN narrator and/or characters; create a smooth -convey -detail -develop -elaborate progression of experiences or events. DETAILS, AND WELL-STRUCTURED -elements of plot (exposition, rising action, b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, climax, falling action, denouement, EVENT SEQUENCES. description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to resolution, conflict, protagonist/antagonist, etc.) develop experiences, events, and/or characters. -elements of prose (diction, syntax, imagery, c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so figurative language, style, theme, tone, etc.) that they build on one another to create a coherent -engage -establish -event -illustrate -interact -narrative whole. -narrative techniques (dialogue, pacing, d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and description, flashback, foreshadow, framing CCR ANCHOR: WRITE NARRATIVES TO DEVELOP REAL OR IMAGINED sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the device, multiple plot lines, reflection, shift, EXPERIENCES OR EVENTS USING EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE, WELL-CHOSEN time frame, point of view, etc.) experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. -narrator -orient DETAILS, AND WELL-STRUCTURED EVENT SEQUENCES. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects -phrases -point of view on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over -precise -progression -reflection - relevant - the course of the narrative. sensory language *Extended Understanding -sequence -setting -Extend a short narrative into a novella or novel -signal -unfold -vivid
BROAD LEARNING TARGET: The student can write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. Underpinning Knowledge Learning Targets: The student can define, identify, and use elements of prose (style, theme, tone . . .), elements of plot (conflict, climax, protagonist . . .), and narrative techniques (dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, multiple plot lines, . . .) to develop experiences, events, and characters. ULTIMATE LEARNING The student can define, identify, and use a variety of transitional words, phrases, and clauses to connect sequences of events, shifts in time, changes in TARGET TYPE: settings, and relationships among experiences and events. PRODUCT The student can define, identify, and use precise, grade-level appropriate vocabulary, sensory language, and figurative language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Underpinning Reasoning Learning Targets: The student can engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one ormultiple point(s) of view, introducing a narrator and/or characters, and creating a smooth progression of experiences or events. The student can provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 30 OHIO’S LEARNING STANDARDS-CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS-WRITING, GRADES 9-10
Essential Components DRAW EVIDENCE FROM W.9-10.9.a-b LITERARY OR a. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to Academic W.9-10.9 literature (e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on Vocabulary/Language INFORMATIONAL TEXTS TO and transforms source material in a specific work SUPPORT ANALYSIS, (e.g., "Analyze how an author alludes to and -allude/allusion REFLECTION, AND RESEARCH. transforms source material in a specific work [e.g., -analyze/analysis how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or -delineate the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare]"). -draw b. Apply grades 9-10 Reading standards to -evidence literary nonfiction (e.g., “Delineate and evaluate -informational texts the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing -literary texts CCR ANCHOR: DRAW EVIDENCE FROM LITERARY OR INFORMATIONAL whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is TEXTS TO SUPPORT ANALYSIS, REFLECTION, AND RESEARCH. relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and -reasoning fallacious reasoning”). -reflection Essential Understanding -research -Analyze literary and informational texts -Draw evidence from literary and informational -transform texts for analysis, reflection, and research
BROAD LEARNING TARGETS: The student can draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. ULTIMATE LEARNING Underpinning Knowledge Learning Targets: TARGET TYPE: The student can identify evidence in literary and informational texts that supports analysis, REASONING reflection, and research. Underpinning Reasoning Learning Targets: The student can analyze literary and informational texts. The student can engage in analysis, reflection, and research.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 31 OHIO’S LEARNING STANDARDS-CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS-READING LITERATURE, GRADES 9-10
CITE STRONG AND THOROUGH Essential Understanding Academic -Reading comprehension Vocabulary/Language TEXTUAL EVIDENCE TO -Draw inferences RL.9-10.1 SUPPORT ANALYSIS OF WHAT -Cite specific textual -analyze/analysis evidence to support THE TEXT SAYS EXPLICITLY AS inferences and text meaning -cite WELL AS INFERENCES DRAWN FROM THE TEXT. -Analyze the text -drawn -Evaluate evidence -MLA formatting for in-text -explicit citations and works cited -evaluate CCR ANCHOR: READ CLOSELY TO DETERMINE WHAT THE TEXT SAYS pages EXPLICITLY AND TO MAKE LOGICAL INFERENCES FROM IT, CITE SPECIFIC -inference TEXTUAL EVIDENCE WHEN WRITING OR SPEAKING TO SUPPORT *Extended Understanding CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE TEXT. -Determine where text -MLA Formatting leaves matters uncertain -textual evidence
BROAD LEARNING TARGET: The student can cite textual evidence that strongly and thoroughly supports an analysis of what the text says and inferences it makes. Underpinning Knowledge Learning Targets: The student can recognize textual evidence and inferences. ULTIMATE LEARNING Underpinning Reasoning Learning Targets: TARGET TYPE: The student can analyze text to cite textual evidence that is explicitly stated. REASONING The student can analyze text to cite textual evidence that is inferred.
The student can evaluate the strength of textual evidence. The student can evaluate the thoroughness of textual evidence. Underpinning Product Learning Targets: The student can use correct MLA format for in-text citations and works cited pages.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 32 OHIO’S LEARNING STANDARDS-CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS-READING LITERATURE, GRADES 9-10
Essential Understanding ANALYZE LITERARY TEXT -Recognize and understand theme Academic DEVELOPMENT. -Analyze theme development Vocabulary/Language -Recognize refinement and -analyze RL.9-10.2 shaping of theme -central idea A. DETERMINE A THEME OF A TEXT AND -Analyze relationship of ANALYZE IN DETAIL ITS DEVELOPMENT literary/story elements and -determine OVER THE COURSE OF THE TEXT, INCLUDING HOW IT EMERGES AND details to theme development -development IS SHAPED AND REFINED BY SPECIFIC DETAILS. -Objectively summarize the text -emerge -Summarize a theme of a text B. PROVIDE AN OBJECTIVE SUMMARY OF THE TEXT THAT INCLUDES -literary elements (e.g., conflict, using relevant story elements characterization, plot, tone, etc.) THE THEME AND RELEVANT STORY ELEMENTS. *Extended Understanding -objective CCR ANCHOR: DETERMINE CENTRAL IDEAS OR THEMES OF A TEXT AND -Relational analysis of two or -refine ANALYZE THEIR DEVELOPMENT; SUMMARIZE THE KEY SUPPORTING more themes/central ideas -summarize/summary DETAILS AND IDEAS. -theme BROAD LEARNING TARGETS: The student can analyze literary text development. The student can determine the theme of a text and analyze its development, showing how it emerges and is shaped and refined by details. The student can objectively summarize a text. ULTIMATE LEARNING The student can include theme and story elements in a summary of theme. TARGET TYPE: Underpinning Knowledge Learning Targets: REASONING The student can define, understand, and recognize theme and summary. The student can follow the development of theme in a text. The student can recognize refinement and shaping of theme in a text. Underpinning Reasoning Learning Targets: The student can analyze how a theme emerges in a text. The student can distinguish between textual facts and opinions.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 33 OHIO’S LEARNING STANDARDS-CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS-READING LITERATURE, GRADES 9-10 Essential Understanding -Understand and identify Academic Vocabulary/Language ANALYZE HOW COMPLEX characterization (direct and indirect) in a text -analyze CHARACTERS (E.G., THOSE WITH -Analyze how conflicting or -character multiple motivations reveal RL.9-10.3 MULTIPLE OR CONFLICTING character, affect character -characterization MOTIVATIONS) DEVELOP OVER development, and influence -complex character THE COURSE OF A TEXT, INTERACT WITH OTHER relationships in a text -develop -Analyze how complex -interact CHARACTERS, AND ADVANCE THE PLOT OR DEVELOP characters advance the plot line or theme in a text -motivation THE THEME. -plot *Extended Understanding -propel -Analyze rhetorical strategies -theme CCR ANCHOR: ANALYZE HOW AND WHY INDIVIDUALS, EVENTS, AND used by characters in a text IDEAS DEVELOP AND INTERACT OVER THE COURSE OF A TEXT.
BROAD LEARNING TARGETS: The students can analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text to advance plot or develop theme. The students can analyze how the interactions of a complex character with other characters ULTIMATE advance plot or develop theme. LEARNING TARGET Underpinning Knowledge Learning Targets: TYPE: REASONING The student can understand and identify direct and indirect characterization. The student can identify complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations. Underpinning Reasoning Learning Targets: The student can analyze how conflicting or multiple motivations reveal character, affect character development, and influence relationships in a text.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 34 OHIO’S LEARNING STANDARDS-CLEAR LEARNING TARGETS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS-READING LITERATURE, GRADES 9-10 Essential Understanding DETERMINE THE MEANING OF -Interpret words and Academic WORDS AND PHRASES AS THEY phrases Vocabulary/Language -Determine figurative RL.9-10.4 ARE USED IN THE TEXT, -analyze and connotative word -connotation/denotation INCLUDING FIGURATIVE AND meanings in a text -Analyze how diction -cumulative CONNOTATIVE MEANINGS; ANALYZE THE CUMULATIVE impacts meaning and -diction IMPACT OF SPECIFIC WORD CHOICES ON MEANING tone -evoke -Distinguish between -figurative language AND TONE (E.G., HOW THE LANGUAGE EVOKES A SENSE formal and informal (See your adopted textbook’s OF TIME AND PLACE; HOW IT SETS A FORMAL OR tone glossary for grade-level appropriate figurative language devices or INFORMAL TONE). *Extended https://literarydevices.net/figurative- Understanding language/.) CCR ANCHOR: INTERPRET WORDS AND PHRASES AS THEY ARE USED IN A -mood TEXT, INCLUDING DETERMINING TECHNICAL, CONNOTATIVE, AND -Identify and understand elements of -phrases FIGURATIVE MEANINGS, AND ANALYZE HOW SPECIFIC WORD CHOICES language/rhetoric -tone SHAPE MEANING OR TONE. BROAD LEARNING TARGETS: The student can determine the figurative, literal, and connotative meaning of words and phrases based on how they are used in a text. The student can analyze the cumulative impact of diction on meaning, mood, and tone.
Underpinning Knowledge Learning Targets: ULTIMATE The student can identify words and phrases that have connotative and figurative meaning used in a text. LEARNING TARGET The student can recognize several instances of similar word choices in a text. TYPE: REASONING Underpinning Reasoning Learning Targets: The student can determine, interpret, clarify, or verify the figurative, literal, and connotative meanings of words and phrases by using context clues, applying knowledge of Greek/Latin affixes and roots, making cultural and literary connections, and/or consulting reference materials. The student can determine the tone (formal, informal, positive, neutral, negative, etc.) and mood in a text, and interpret the relationship between diction and tone, mood, or meaning.
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 35
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TEACHER RESOURCE WRITERS This Teacher Resource was created during the summer of 2016 as part of Carla Mae Phillips, Lead 6-12 Curriculum Coordinator an initiative to increase textual choice for teaching Ohio’s Learning Tracie Helmbrecht, NBCT Standards. It is part of a series of Teacher Resources for the following Gina McGowan newly adopted supplemental literature. Note: Please adhere to the grade level chosen for each title to avoid textual overlap for our students. Pam Reed Lynn Taylor, NBCT Grade Six Melanie Thompson A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare Edition) Supplemental Resources for Brown Girl Dreaming ______Hello, Universe by Erin Kelly NOTE: The lessons included in these supplemental resources may not be Grade Seven aligned to Ohio’s Learning Standards or the Common Core. Please make The Crossover by Kwame Alexander choices about using any of the lessons and ideas included here based upon how they can help students meet and exceed learning targets. Grade Eight Penguin Teacher’s Guide for Jacqueline Woodson The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare Read Think Write lesson on desegregation and Brown Girl Dreaming (No Fear Shakespeare Edition) International Literacy Association resources for teaching Grade Nine Kalamazoo Library reading guide and discussion questions Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Grade Ten Othello by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare Edition) Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Grade Eleven The Help by Kathryn Stockett Grade Twelve Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (No Fear Shakespeare Edition)
English Language Arts 6-12 Curriculum, https://www.ccsoh.us/English6-12 36